Lamar Jackson Making Strides Throwing Ball Downfield

Ravens QB showing progress as passer.

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson leads the NFL in yards-per-pass average. 

He's not surprised considering the work he put in during the offseason. 

In Week 3 against the Detroit Lions, Jackson averaged 14.8 air yards/completion, 19.3 air yards/attempt and he threw on average 8.5 air yards past the sticks, according to NextGen Stats. All three statistics are the highest in a game since the start of the 2020 season. 

Remarkably, Jackson completed just 51.6% of his passes but he still had a completion percentage over expectation (CPOE) of +6.3%.

“I don’t really get into the statistics part of the game," Jackson said. "It’s about winning at the end of the day, and that’s what we’ve been doing, so I don’t really care about the naysayers [or] about anything else.”

Jackson worked with Tom House Sports’ Adam Dedeaux. during the offseason. He's also working with quarterbacks coach James Urban, who preaches the importance of repetition and doing the stuff over and over again.

Jackson has thrown for 761 yards with three touchdowns and three interceptions (86.4 qbr). He dismissed the notion that throwing more downfield leads to turnovers. 

"If anything, it will probably lead to a sack or something – holding the ball too long – not an interception," he said. "Sometimes you’re just trying to make things happen. If you’re looking at the clock, you get caught up with the score and you try to make stuff happen too fast. Instead of just taking what they give you, sometimes you might throw a pick.”

Jackson's performance against the Lions underscored the progress he's made as a passer. On a fourth-and-19 and the game on the Lion, Jackson completed a 36-yard pass to Sammy Watkins that set up Justin Tucker's game-winning field goal in the 19-17 victory. 

“[Since] OTAs and stuff like that, we’ve been working on pushing the ball downfield," Jackson said. "That was a huge emphasis [for] us coming in. Coach was telling us, ‘If we get a few during the game, it’ll help us throughout the game,’ and that’s what we’ve been trying to do. Sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t, but hopefully, we’ll be hitting a lot more throughout the season.”